"the rachel maddow show" starts right now. ezra cline filling in for "the rachel maddow show" tonight. >> good evening. a dreary december day turned out to be full of news today including big news out of the supreme court. and one of the coolest pictures ever having a big revooufl. but we begin with important news out of washington. for all the squabbling politicians and the whining pundits, we can announce to you tonight, right here, right now, there's a budget deal that's becoming clear. our long national nightmare might almost, and i repeat, it's washington, almost be over. this is kind of like one of those kids games where you have to look at a picture that looks like nonsense until your eyes filter out the garbage and you can finally see the sailboat. that's what's going on in washington. you have to filter out the garbage. take yesterday for example. i don't tune into c-span 2 for comedy, just because it's good television. but the senate was being hilarious about the debt ceiling, which is hard to be hilarious about. her